Battle Royale is a unique genre which cannot leave you indifferent. You either consider it a joke, or approach it in all seriousness. Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has already been a huge success and it’s definitely going to set a new bar not just for the genre itself, but for the gaming industry in general. The only thing that stops some people from buying the game is the uncertainty of their computer being powerful enough to run the game. If you’re one of those people, this article is exactly what you need to figure it out.

A little history

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds got its name after the nickname of its creator Brandon Greene most known as PlayerUnknown. His record includes DayZ mode for ARMA, H1Z1: King of the Hill and PUBG itself which, unlike DayZ and H1Z1, has been a product of Brandon’s own company Bluehole, Inc. PlayerUnknown is truly a sage of the genre since he practically invented it.

How it works

One hundred players are being dropped on the island 64 square kilometers in the area where they should loot houses in search for a perfect weapon, make sure they are in the constantly shrinking playing zone also known as “the circle”, and of course, make it to the very end. As soon as you see someone you shoot or get shot. Plane trajectory is always random and so is loot. Every once in a while, there’s a red zone in the random place of the map and you better be far away from the air bombing attack or lay low in first house you can find.

Weapons

Clothes, weapons, add-ons and items haven’t changed much since the initial public release, but are still very diverse. You can get a suppressor for a loud weapon as well as scopes which vary from red-dot ones to 8x and if you’re lucky, you’ll get a 15x beast in the air drop. In addition to that, you can come across extended magazines and foregrips for weapons of all sorts. Experienced DayZ players might find it hard to get used to PUBG’s ballistics, but it gets better with time and bullets eventually start damaging your enemies. Sometimes you just have to aim a little higher.

PUBG’s performance testing

The game is heavily bugged. However, you can’t judge it yet since PUBG is still in early access. Besides, it’s being constantly patched. Lagging and freezing will not be a huge problem for a modern hardware users, but visual and sound bugs can destroy your game experience sometimes.

Developers haven’t revealed recommended requirements yet, though minimum ones are already available. Based on them we created two platforms for a complete performance testing. Each configuration took us about half an hour to test which equals to an average time spent in a game. For the accuracy of the experiment we should have done exactly the same things in exactly the same order on both platforms to create an identical system load which is quite impossible while playing Battle Royale and PUBG in particular. Thus, the more random the game is the harder it gets to come up with ideal performance testing results.

Minimal System Requirements

OS

64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10

CPU

Intel Core i3-4340/ AMD FX-6300

GPU

nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB / AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB

RAM

6 GB

DirectX

11

HDD

30 GB

Game.STR nVidia Testing table

OS

Windows 8.1

CPU

Intel Core i3-4340

GPU

nVidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB

RAM

6 GB

DirectX

11

Game.STR Radeon Testing table

OS

Windows 8.1

CPU

AMD FX-6300

GPU

AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB

RAM

6 GB

DirectX

11

As you can see, our platform configurations are identical to the minimum system requirements. The only thing is we haven’t substituted Windows 8.1 for something better working because apparently some people still use the OS. You can also take a look at FPS charts for platforms with GTX 660 and HD7850 and comparison diagrams further in the text.

PUBG GTX660 Performance

PUBG HD7850 Performance

PUBG GTX660vsHD7850

You probably noticed that only one diagram has three lines in it which shows that at certain moments game reached an absolute zero performance. Something you can expect from early access games and there’s nothing much you can do about it. The fact that performance has never gone lower than 2 FPS on low settings is either our luck or some amazing game optimization. In general, Nvidia has a slight advantage over AMD showing higher or same FPS rate on most settings. Only on low does AMD get a higher score in max FPS, however showing the same average performance as Nvidia.

Life hacks

The first thing you need to do before launching Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds on low settings is to get ready. At the moment, not even Nvidia 1080ti can save you from experiencing lagging and freezing. Next thing you need to do is disable all applications that can load your system. Say goodbye to gaming centers, browsers, graphics software, Skype (unless you’re playing as a team, but better use Discord for that), VPN and even office documents. With PUBG you wouldn’t want any other process to run at the same time. Don’t forget to check your driver update. Nvidia has already released a new version for the latest PUBG patch. Finally, relax. System requirements won’t go any lower and the upcoming optimization will give you ten more FPS at best. So, if you’re struggling with 25 FPS on your AMD HD7850 it’s time to say goodbye and get a new GPU. After all, changing the resolution to 720p will not help much.

Good news is you don’t have to spend a fortune on a new GPU. Even with an AMD CPU, your Nvidia GTX750ti will run the game quite alright. Our testing results showed 42 FPS on low, 28FPS on medium and 19FPS on high.

If you follow gaming industry news you probably know that GTX660 and HD7850 are not miracle workers. Modern games can hardly be played on them and if you still own one, it’s time to upgrade.

Still got hope

Brendon Greene is famous for quitting his previous projects leaving them in beta forever. PUBG’s developers claim to release the final project within six months after early access launching. Even though the game’s design document isn’t that big and the concept itself is getting old our testing proves that there are all chances for a successful PUBG release. Especially since all the patches have only improved the game so far.